Court flunks case against Scholastic

Family accepted telemarketing deal

By CANDACE HECKMAN, P-I REPORTER

Published
10:00 pm PDT, Monday, May 15, 2006

A federal judge in Seattle has dismissed a suit that was intended to bring a class action against Scholastic, the world's largest publisher of children's books, over Scholastic's sending consumers unwanted books and then demanding payment.

New evidence that surfaced after Scholastic conducted its own internal investigation showed that the plaintiffs in the lawsuit had previously sent in two book club postcards and apparently had agreed to accept a telemarketing offer to buy encyclopedias.

A Bellevue family filed the lawsuit in January, essentially agreeing to be the public face for what attorneys believe are thousands of parents who have been bombarded by what they say are duplicitous free offers from the children's book publishing house.

"Scholastic found the allegations of wrongdoing to be completely untrue and filed a response with the court," said Kyle Good, Scholastic's spokeswoman, in a statement.

"Scholastic values our parent, child, teacher and school customers and is a trusted brand offering quality books at affordable prices," she said. "Our programs are designed not only to comply with law but also to provide exceptional customer service."

The original plaintiffs, John Hart and Carly Alcombrack, did not present a strong case once Scholastic shared its evidence with attorneys: photocopies of the postcards offering membership in a book club and a recording of the last part of a telemarketing conversation in which Hart had given the caller the correct names and spellings of his children. In the same telephone recording, Hart, after listening to an explanation of an offer for discounted encyclopedias, evidently answered in the affirmative, "Uh-huh."

The plaintiffs and their attorneys agreed to a voluntary dismissal of the case in April, but lawyers are now interviewing other potential plaintiffs who claim they were sent unsolicited goods from Scholastic. They also have been communicating with another lawyer in Texas who had filed a state lawsuit against the publisher alleging the same problems, said Nick Styant-Browne, one of the Seattle-based attorneys suing Scholastic.

In her original allegations against the publishing company, Alcombrack said she filled out and sent in a postcard offering a free Barbie backpack and three books. She did not recall any strings attached to the offer.

But a photocopy of the card Alcombrack filled out showed that, in addition to the three books, Scholastic would send a fourth, and if she did not return it within 10 days, she would have to pay for it, along with at least "four shipments of two books each," to fulfill the obligation.

Scholastic paid the Federal Trade Commission a $710,000 civil penalty a year ago for confusing consumers in telephone and direct marketing campaigns. The company was penalized for abusing "negative option" programs that require consumers to tell the company they do not want a product sent to them.